Advice to young scriptwriters Do your damnedest to get involved with things and people that you really care about
On Hollywood's decline
One of the reasons why there were so many good American movies in the 1970s was that the studios were still owned by individuals in those days, and there wasn't this phalanx of executives and readers giving notes to people who gave notes to people who gave notes to people like me
On script-doctoring
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I wrote that scene [between Denziel Washington and Gene Hackman in Crimson Tide] down the phone because they needed it right away
On his Oscar-winning scritp for Chinatown It wouldn't be made. It just wouldn't happen